A serious game-ending bug in Half-Life 1: Source (End of "Surface Tension" chapter)

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Broken Spirit v2.0 - 15 Feb 2006 14:47 GMT

I don't know if anyone else has played through Half-Life 1 lately, but I
decided to play through the game a few days ago since it came with my
version of Half-Life 2 (Game of the Year Edition). When I got to the end of
the chapter "Surface Tension", the part where you use the alien bouncy-thing
pod to get up on a roof and smash a grate to fall into some water and move
through a pipe... here, a soldier at the end opens a hatch and tosses in an
explosive, which detonates and sends fire through the pipe. But upon
reaching this point, the soldier mentioned immediately closes the hatch at
the end, no matter if you kill him quickly or not; the hatch still closes
and locks permenantly. You CANNOT go any further without using the noclip
cheat. Maybe the hatch is supposed to close, but it shouldn't lock, should
it? Anyway, I mentioned this in Steam's forums without much response (no one
cares).

I'm actually just curious if anyone else has experienced this same bug. I
even tried re-loaded an hour-old save, only to spend an hour getting back to
the same point with the same results. May be a scripting bug.

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Paul Catley - 15 Feb 2006 20:22 GMT

>I don't know if anyone else has played through Half-Life 1 lately, but I
>decided to play through the game a few days ago since it came with my version
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
>supposed to close, but it shouldn't lock, should it? Anyway, I mentioned this
>in Steam's forums without much response (no one cares).

It's scripted. Did you shoot him before he threw the satchel charge in? Well
done, you broke the sequence :) That's not how to deal with the situation...

--
Paul

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Broken Spirit v2.0 - 17 Feb 2006 06:51 GMT

No, shooting him was one of the many things I tried in order to get around
this bug. After several hours of trying to get past the locked hatch, I was
forced to use the noclip cheat to walk through it, because no amount of
reloading, running, hiding, shooting, screaming or anything else was going
to change the fact that no matter what you do here, the hatch always closes
and locks. Could be a rare bug that only happened to me, but if you play
through Half-Life 1: Source any time soon, and encounter this problem, I'd
be interested in hearing about it.

> It's scripted. Did you shoot him before he threw the satchel charge in?
> Well done, you broke the sequence :) That's not how to deal with the
> situation...
>
> --
> Paul

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Villain - 16 Feb 2006 13:51 GMT

>I don't know if anyone else has played through Half-Life 1 lately, but I
>decided to play through the game a few days ago since it came with my
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
>even tried re-loaded an hour-old save, only to spend an hour getting back to
>the same point with the same results. May be a scripting bug.

I have also notice several bugs like this in both the original HL and
HL source.

The thing I always do is, enter the pipe, travel down it until the guy
throws the satchel, then run back and duck under water. After the
explosion, I go back into the tube to the hatch at the end, and it
usually opens for me. if it's not opening for you, the sequence of
events may have gotten screwed up somehow.

My problems have been a) the "bounce pads" do not work properly and b)
I seem to get "stuck" to the floor in elevators when they stop.

I always thought my problems were due to my system in particular,
though.

Villain

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EvilBill - 16 Feb 2006 17:04 GMT

> My problems have been a) the "bounce pads" do not work properly and b)
> I seem to get "stuck" to the floor in elevators when they stop.

The latter has been a HL bug of long standing since the game first came out
in 1998 ;)

Signature

--
"I hope you don't object to my badgering the witless!"

EvilBill - http://www.evilbill.org.uk
yahoo: evilbill_agqx

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Paul Catley - 16 Feb 2006 19:32 GMT

> I have also notice several bugs like this in both the original HL and
> HL source.
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> usually opens for me. if it's not opening for you, the sequence of
> events may have gotten screwed up somehow.

I may be misinterpreting Broken Spirit, but I think he was saying that he tried
to progress by killing the marine before he throws the satchel in and shuts the
door. IMO, this would break the scripting, but isn't a bug. He has to do what
you said and let the explosion go off. If it's still locked after that, then
yes, it's a bug.

--
Paul

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Broken Spirit v2.0 - 17 Feb 2006 06:55 GMT

No, shooting him was something I tried in the hopes that I could stop him
from closing the hatch. The first, say, 100 tries, I first backed up and hid
in the water... after that failed to work, I just soaked up the explosion.
Either way the hatch was locked and was never going to open. Then I tried
loading an hour-old saved game, but in the end there was no way past this
hatch without cheating.

> I may be misinterpreting Broken Spirit, but I think he was saying that he
> tried to progress by killing the marine before he throws the satchel in
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> --
> Paul

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Broken Spirit v2.0 - 17 Feb 2006 06:53 GMT

> The thing I always do is, enter the pipe, travel down it until the guy
> throws the satchel, then run back and duck under water. After the
> explosion, I go back into the tube to the hatch at the end, and it
> usually opens for me. if it's not opening for you, the sequence of
> events may have gotten screwed up somehow.

Nope. Doesn't work. The hatch is locked forever.

> My problems have been a) the "bounce pads" do not work properly and b)
> I seem to get "stuck" to the floor in elevators when they stop.

I have also noticed the bouncey pod things don't work properly. I don't get
stuck in elevators though.

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KCB - 17 Feb 2006 11:24 GMT

>> The thing I always do is, enter the pipe, travel down it until the guy
>> throws the satchel, then run back and duck under water. After the
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
> I have also noticed the bouncey pod things don't work properly. I don't
> get stuck in elevators though.

You will...

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Peter [AGHL] - 18 Feb 2006 10:53 GMT

>> I have also noticed the bouncey pod things don't work properly. I don't
>> get stuck in elevators though.
>
> You will...

Eventually

- Peter

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gamestersgames@aol.com - 20 Feb 2006 07:14 GMT

> I don't know if anyone else has played through Half-Life 1 lately, but I
> decided to play through the game a few days ago since it came with my
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
> even tried re-loaded an hour-old save, only to spend an hour getting back to
> the same point with the same results. May be a scripting bug.

It's not a bug. That is not the way to do it. Try something else. I
don't want to give it away.

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Broken Spirit v2.0 - 21 Feb 2006 03:33 GMT

Eh? Well seeing as I've beaten the game already, you might as well tell me.
I'm playing Half-Life 2 now. I'm in Ravenholm. Creepy a.s level.
Besides, I'm pretty sure it is a bug.

> It's not a bug. That is not the way to do it. Try something else. I
> don't want to give it away.

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gamestersgames@aol.com - 23 Feb 2006 06:54 GMT

> Eh? Well seeing as I've beaten the game already, you might as well tell me.
> I'm playing Half-Life 2 now. I'm in Ravenholm. Creepy a.s level.
> Besides, I'm pretty sure it is a bug.
>
> > It's not a bug. That is not the way to do it. Try something else. I
> > don't want to give it away.

I suppose that I should have read the responses before responding
myself. What I considered the problem was already covered. Have all the
enemies been killed? That's the only other possible problem of which I
could think.

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